What was the international position of Russia at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries?
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, Russia was one of the leading powers in international politics. At this time, the main directions of Russian foreign policy were:
Balkan: rivalry with Austria-Hungary for influence in the region. Russian support for Slavic states in the fight against Turkey.
European: worsening economic relations with Germany (Customs War of 1890) and rapprochement with France to counter German plans for hegemony in Europe (in 1891, Russia and France entered into an agreement to create a Franco-Russian union, which was supplemented by a defensive agreement in 1893 ).
Central Asian direction: rivalry with England for influence in Central Asia (ended in 1907 with the signing of an agreement on the delimitation of spheres of influence)
Far Eastern direction: Russia's participation in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in China. Rivalry with Japan for the northeastern region of China - Manchuria, which led to the unsuccessful Russo-Japanese War.
After the unsuccessful Russo-Japanese War and the conclusion of the Anglo-Russian agreement, Russia refocused its attention on European politics - the creation of the Entente.
What goals did Russia pursue when entering the First World War?
Entering the First World War, Russia sought to prevent German hegemony in Europe, strengthen its influence in the Balkans, and also resolve the issue of the Black Sea straits (to occupy Constantinople).
Using additional literature and the Internet, compile a list of scientific achievements and inventions of Russian scientists that were subsequently used for military purposes.
1881 – Kibalchich N.I. created a diagram of a jet-powered aircraft
1882 – Golubitsky P.M. developed a multi-pole telephone
1885 – Submarine with an electric motor Dzhevetsky S.K.
1889 – Three-line rifle model 1891 S.I. Mosin
1904 – Mortar by S.N. Vlasyev and L.N. Gobyato
1908 – submarine
1913 – bomber I.I. Sikorsky.
The comparison with which war is indicated by the definition “patriotic”?
Since the Patriotic War of 1812
1. What changes occurred in the economic situation of the great world powers at the beginning of the 20th century?
By the beginning of the twentieth century, Great Britain had lost its leading position as a leading industrial power. In terms of production volume of heavy industry products, Germany has overtaken it. Russia has become the world leader in annual industrial growth rates
2. How did the military-political blocs develop? What were the goals of each?
Military blocs were formed as a result of economic and political confrontation between the Great Powers.
Entente (Great Britain, France, Russia) - to prevent German hegemony in Europe, the military and economic weakening of Germany. England - eliminate competition from German industry, seize German colonies. France - return Alsace and Lorraine, Russia - Help Serbia, influence in the Balkans, seizure of the Black Sea straits. Italy - territorial acquisitions at the expense of Turkey and Austria-Hungary.
The Triple Alliance: solving foreign policy problems, weakening England, France and Russia. Germany - to win hegemony in Europe, redistribute the colonies (at the expense of England and France). Austria-Hungary - maintaining a multinational empire, preventing the creation of strong Slavic states in the Balkans, weakening Russia. Turkey - preservation of the empire, revenge for the lost Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. and the Balkan wars.
3. What was the reason for the outbreak of the First World War?
The reason for the outbreak of the First World War was the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand, on June 14, 1914 in Sarajevo by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. This was followed by an ultimatum from Austria-Hungary to Serbia, which the latter could not accept.
4. Make a complex answer plan on the topic “Causes of the First World War” using the text of the paragraph and a map.
1. Prerequisites.
Economic contradictions of the great powers
The struggle for the colonial redistribution of the world
2. Military alliances and their participants.
Creation of the Triple Alliance
Creation of the Entente
3. Participants in the First World War and their goals.
UK goals
French goals
Russia's goals
Germany's goals
Goals of Austria-Hungary
Italy's goals
Goals of the Ottoman Empire
4. International crises.
Moroccan crises
Italo-Turkish War
Bosnian crisis
Balkan Wars
5. The plans of the side before the start of the war and the preparation of the powers for it.
Schlieffen Plan
Plan of France
Russian plan
6. The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and the reaction of European powers.
Austro-Hungarian ultimatum to Serbia
Mobilization in Russia
Germany declares war on Russia
1. Show on the map the states of the Entente and the Triple Alliance.
Entente: Russia, Great Britain, France
Triple Alliance: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy.
2. Based on the map, outline the plans of the warring parties.
Germany (according to the plan of A. von Schlieffen) planned, without waiting for the mobilization of the armies of England and Russia, to strike a swift blow to France and take it out of the war. To bypass the powerful border defensive structures created by France, Germany planned to strike France from the territory of Belgium, from where it was not expected. After the quick defeat of France, it was planned to direct all forces against Russia, and then deploy them against England.
France and Russia planned to launch a simultaneous offensive against Germany in both the west and the east. At the same time, Russia proceeded from the priority task of defeating Austria-Hungary in order to direct all its main forces to the fight against Germany.
1. Who signed this Manifesto? Name any two explanations given by the author that forced the Russian army and navy to be put under martial law.
Signed by Emperor Nicholas II.
Help Serbia and force Austria to abandon the war.
Necessary Precautions
2. Indicate the task proclaimed by the Manifesto that faced Russia after Germany declared war.
To protect the honor, dignity, integrity of Russia and its position among the Great Powers.
3. Determine the reasons for Russia’s entry into the war named in the Manifesto.
Help for Slavic peoples
Defense of Serbia from Austrian aggression
International situation at the beginning of the twentieth century. determined by the intensification of rivalry between the great powers. Two opposing imperialist groupings are finally taking shape: Triple Alliance and Triple Entente.
In the face of German expansion, British diplomacy abandoned the traditional policy of “brilliant isolation” and set a course for rapprochement with France. In 1904, England concluded a military-political alliance with France called "Entente"(Hearty agreement). This agreement opened the way to rapprochement with Russia, which, in turn, needed a strong ally in order to paralyze the aggressive plans of Japanese circles regarding the Far East and stop Germany’s penetration into the Middle East.
Russian Foreign Minister A.P. By the “great historical tasks” of Russian foreign policy, Izvolsky meant, first of all, the desire of tsarism to own the Black Sea straits. This was supposed to provide Russia with free access to the Mediterranean Sea and the security of the entire Black Sea coast. The sea route through the straits was the most important trade artery for Russia. For 50 years, from 1861 to 1911, grain exports from Russia increased more than 11 times; 89% of grain in 1907 was exported through the Dardanelles.
The turn of tsarism from traditional friendship with neighboring monarchies to an agreement with the “insidious Albion” was not painless. Back in the summer of 1905, trying to break out of external isolation, Nicholas II was ready to sign an agreement with Germany, hoping for a future alliance of Russia, France and Germany against England - the culprit, in his opinion, of Russia’s troubles in the Far East. Only the active intervention of Witte and the refusal of the French government to any discussion of the possibility of an alliance with William II forced the Tsar to retreat.
The palace camarilla, consisting mainly of Baltic nobles, advocated rapprochement with Germany; a small but influential group of royal dignitaries; rightists in the Duma, Black Hundred organizations. They saw the alliance with Germany as a bastion of European reaction against a possible Russian revolution. They intended to neutralize Austria-Hungary in the Balkans and take revenge in the Far East. The dynastic ties of the two monarchies also pushed for this union.
The liberal-democratic parties, from the Cadets to the Octobrists, and the moderate right in the Duma were oriented towards England. They were attracted, first of all, by the possibility of economic rapprochement with the highly developed industry of England and France. The tsarist government, forced as a result of the revolution to make concessions to the bourgeoisie, allowing it into political life, was under pressure from Western democracies - England and France, which were oriented towards the liberal bourgeois circles of Russia. The policy of rapprochement with England was supported by the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, who believed that this would weaken the autocracy and strengthen democratic tendencies in the development of the country.
The aggravation of Russian-Japanese relations diverted Russia's military forces to the Far East and devalued its importance as a military ally in Europe. Therefore, England and France put pressure on Japan to force it to moderate its demands towards Russia. On July 15, 1907, a Russian-Japanese trade agreement and a fishing convention were signed, and a day later an agreement on general political issues. The secret agreement stipulated that Northern Manchuria and Outer Mongolia were included in Japan's sphere of influence.
A month later, on August 18, 1907, an agreement was signed in St. Petersburg between Russia and England on the delimitation of interests in Persia, Afghanistan and Tibet. Persia was divided into three zones: northern - the sphere of influence of Russia; the southeast - the sphere of influence of England and the middle - neutral. Russia recognized Afghanistan as being outside its sphere of interests and pledged to carry out political relations with it only through the intermediaries of the British government. Regarding Tibet, the parties agreed to respect its territorial integrity and internal governance while maintaining relations with Tibet through the Chinese government.
Central in European politics at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. remained Balkan question, which contained within itself the spark of a great war. Having strengthened its influence in the Balkans as a result of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, the autocracy sought, in the event of an aggravation of the political situation there, to be ready to defend and even expand its claims. This often led to Russia provoking an aggravation of the situation on the Balkan Peninsula. Thus, in 1909, trying to bargain with Austria-Hungary by transferring Bosnia and Herzegovina to it, Russia hoped to receive in exchange the right of free passage through the straits for its warships. However, Turkey lost even more to Austria-Hungary, and the latter's government demanded that Serbia, Russia's ally, renounce all claims to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Russia, not ready for war, gave in.
Since 1911, Russia has been persistently trying to create a union of Balkan states directed against Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Italo-Turkish war that began in September 1911 aroused Russian diplomacy's hope for the possibility of resolving the issue of the straits through a separate agreement with Turkey. Russian Ambassador in Constantinople N.V. Charykov, on behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs S.D. Sazonova proposed that Turkey guarantee the inviolability of its possessions in Europe in exchange for opening the straits to Russian warships. He also put forward the idea of creating an All-Balkan Confederation, including Turkey. However, this proposal was unacceptable to the Balkan countries and met with secret opposition from the major imperialist powers.
The participants of the Balkan Union - Montenegro, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece in 1912 defeated the Turkish army, but did not divide Macedonia among themselves. Controversies between the Balkan peoples as a result of the wars of 1912-1913. intensified. Bulgaria lost almost all its conquests and even some of its former possessions and began to focus on Austria-Hungary and Germany. Romania seized Southern Dobruja from Bulgaria and changed its orientation towards the Entente. The strengthened Serbia became a center of attraction for the South Slavic subjects of Austria-Hungary. The new state in the Balkans - Albania - has turned into a zone of intrigue and provocations from both blocs. The Balkans lived up to their description as Europe's "powder keg" as never before.
In 1912, Russia concluded a naval convention with France, according to which France pledged to prevent the Austro-Italian fleet from breaking into the Black Sea in the event of war.
In 1913, German influence in the Constantinople area significantly strengthened, which complicated Russia's position in the Middle East. In December 1913, a German military mission led by General Liman von Sanders arrived in Constantinople. This mission was entrusted with the task of reorganizing the Turkish army, defeated in the first Balkan War. After fruitless negotiations on this matter, Russia had to be content with an imaginary concession: Liman von Sanders, instead of commanding the corps, took the post of inspector general of the Turkish army.
Tensions in Russian-German relations increased even more, as the tsarist government wanted to achieve a reduction in German duties on agricultural products and increase its own duties on industrial products.
The inevitability of Russia's short-lived peace with Germany was aggravated by England's reluctance to conclude a military alliance, without which Russia had no guarantees in the event of war with Germany and Austria-Hungary. The possibility of military conflict was obvious.
The situation on the eve of the war. At the beginning of the 20th century. blocs of countries participating in the First World War took place. On the one hand, it was Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, which formed the Triple Alliance (1882), and on the other, England, France and Russia, which created the Entente (1904-1907). The leading role in the Austro-German and Romano-British blocs was played by Germany and England, respectively. The conflict between these two states lay at the heart of the future world war. At the same time, Germany sought to win a worthy place in the sun, England defended the existing world hierarchy.
At the beginning of the century, Germany took second place in the world in terms of industrial production.
state (after the USA) and first place in Europe (in 1913, Germany smelted 16.8 million tons of iron, 15.7 million tons of steel; England, respectively - 10.4 million and 9 million tons (for comparison, France - 5.2 million and 4.7 million tons, respectively, and Russia - 4.6 million tons and 4.9 million tons.) Other areas of the German national economy, science, education, etc. developed at a fairly rapid pace. .
At the same time, Germany's geopolitical position did not correspond to the growing power of its monopolies and the ambitions of the strengthening state. In particular, Germany's colonial holdings were very modest compared to other industrial countries. Out of 65 million sq. km of the total colonial possessions of England, France, Russia, Germany, the USA and Japan, in which 526 million natives lived, Germany accounted for 2.9 million square meters at the beginning of the First World War. km (or 3.5%) with a population of 12.3 million people (or 2.3%). It should be borne in mind that the population of Germany itself was the largest of all Western European countries.
Already at the beginning of the 20th century. Germany's expansion in the Middle East is intensifying due to the construction of the Baghdad Railway; in China - in connection with the annexation of the port of Jiaozhou (1897) and the establishment of its protectorate over the Shandong Peninsula. Germany also establishes a protectorate over Samoa, the Caroline and Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean, and acquires the colonies of Togo and Cameroon in East Africa. This gradually aggravated Anglo-German, German-French and German-Russian contradictions. In addition, German-French relations were complicated by the problem of Alsace, Lorraine and the Ruhr; German-Russian intervention of Germany in the Balkan issue, its support there for the policies of Austria-Hungary and Turkey. German-American trade relations in the field of exports of mechanical engineering products in Latin America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East also worsened (at the beginning of the century, Germany exported 29.1% of world exports of machinery, while the US share was 26.8%. Harbingers The First World War was the Moroccan crises (1905, 1911), the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), the Italian seizure of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, the Italo-Turkish War (1911-1912), the Balkan Wars (1912-1913 and 1913).
On the eve of the First World War, the propaganda of militarism and chauvinism sharply intensified in almost all countries. She lay down on the fertilized soil. Developed industrial states, which have achieved tangible superiority in economic development in comparison with other peoples, began to feel their racial and national superiority, the ideas of which began to emerge from the middle of the 19th century. were cultivated by individual politicians, and by the beginning of the 20th century. become an essential component of the official state ideology. Thus, the Pan-German Union, created in 1891, openly declared England to be the main enemy of the peoples included in it, calling for the seizure of the territories belonging to it, as well as Russia, France, Belgium, and Holland. The ideological basis for this was the concept of the superiority of the German nation. In Italy there was propaganda for expanding dominance in the Mediterranean; In Turkey, the ideas of pan-Turkism were cultivated, pointing to the main enemy - Russia and pan-Slavism. At the other pole, the preaching of colonialism flourished in England, the cult of the army in France, and the doctrine of the protection of all Slavs and pan-Slavism under the auspices of the empire in Russia.
Preparing for war. At the same time, military-economic preparations for world slaughter were underway. So, since the 90s. by 1913, the military budgets of leading countries increased by more than 80%. The military-defense industry developed rapidly: in Germany it employed 115 thousand workers, in Astro-Hungary - 40 thousand, in France - 100 thousand, in England - 100 thousand, in Russia - 80 thousand people. By the beginning of the war, military production in Germany and Austria-Hungary was only slightly inferior to similar indicators in the Entente countries. However, the Entente received a clear advantage in the event of a protracted war or expansion of its coalition.
Taking into account the latter circumstance, German strategists have long been developing a blitzkrieg plan (A. Schliefen (1839-1913), H. Moltke (1848-1916), Z. Schlichting, F. Bernardi, etc.). The German plan provided for a lightning-fast victorious strike in the West with simultaneous deterrent, defensive battles on the eastern front, followed by the defeat of Russia; The Austro-Hungarian headquarters planned a war on two fronts (against Russia and in the Balkans). The plans of the opposing side included an offensive by the Russian army in two directions at once (north
western - against Germany and southwestern - against Austria-Hungary) with a force of 800 thousand bayonets with the passive wait-and-see tactics of the French troops. German politicians and military strategists pinned their hopes on England's neutrality at the beginning of the war, for which purpose in the summer of 1914 they pushed Austria-Hungary into a conflict with Serbia.
The beginning of the war. In response to the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary immediately opened military operations against Serbia, in support of which on July 31, Nicholas II announced a general mobilization in Russia. Russia refused Germany's demand to stop mobilization. On August 1, 1914, Germany declared war on Russia, and on August 3, on France. Germany's hopes for the neutrality of England did not materialize; it issued an ultimatum in defense of Belgium, after which it began military operations against Germany at sea, officially declaring war on it on August 4.
At the beginning of the war, many states declared neutrality, including Holland, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Romania, the USA, and Sweden.
Military operations in 1914 on the Western European Front were offensive from Germany, whose troops, having passed Belgium from the north, entered French territory. At the beginning of September, a grandiose battle took place between the cities of Verdun and Paris (about 2 million people took part), which was lost by German troops. The Russian army was advancing in the East European direction; the troops of the Northwestern and Western fronts (under the command of General Raninkampf and General Samsonov) were stopped by the Germans; The troops of the Southwestern Front achieved success by occupying the city of Lvov. At the same time, hostilities unfolded on the Caucasian and Balkan fronts. In general, the Entente managed to thwart the blitzkrieg plans, as a result of which the war acquired a protracted, positional character, and the scales began to tip in its direction.
Military actions (in 1915-1918). In 1915, there were no major changes on the Western European Front. Russia as a whole lost the 1915 campaign, surrendering Lviv to the Austrians, and Liepaja, Warsaw, and Novogeorgievsk to the Germans.
Contrary to pre-war obligations, in 1915 Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary, as a result of which a new Italian front opened, where military operations did not reveal a clear advantage of the parties. This advantage in favor of the Entente in southern Europe was neutralized by the formation in September 1915 of the Quadruple Austro-German-Bulgarian-Turkish Union. One of the results of its formation was the defeat of Serbia with the subsequent evacuation of its army (120 thousand people) to the island of Corfu.
In the same year, actions on the Caucasian front were transferred to the territory of Iran with the participation of not only Russia and Turkey, but also England; After the landing of the Anglo-French troops in Thessaloniki, the Thessaloniki Front took shape, and the British occupied the territory of South-West Africa. The most significant naval battle of 1915 was the battle for the capture of the Bosporus and Dardanelles.
1916 on the Western European Front was marked by two major battles: near Verdun and on the river. Somme, where 1 million 300 thousand people were killed, wounded and captured on both sides. This year, the Russian army carried out offensive operations on the Northwestern and Western fronts in support of the Allies during the Battle of Verdun. In addition, a breakthrough was made on the Southwestern Front, which went down in history by the name of General A. Brusilov (1853-1926), as a result of which 409 thousand Austrian soldiers and officers were captured and an area of 25 thousand square meters was occupied. km.
In the Caucasus, units of the Russian army occupied the cities of Erzurum, Trebizond, Ruvanduz, Mush, and Bitlis. England was victorious in the North Sea in the largest naval battle of the First World War (Battle of Jutland).
In general, the successes of the Entente ensured a turning point in the course of military operations. The German command (generals Ludendorff (1865-1937) and Hindenburg) switched to the defensive on all fronts from the end of 1916.
However, the following year Russian troops left Riga. Weakened positions of Antan
you were strengthened by the entry into the war on its side of the United States, China, Greece, Brazil, Cuba, Panama, Liberia and Siam. On the Western Front, the Entente failed to gain a decisive advantage, while on the new Iranian front the British occupied Baghdad, and in Africa they consolidated victory in Togo and Cameroon.
In 1918, a unified allied command of the Entente countries was created. Despite the absence of the Russian Front, the Germans and Austrians still kept up to 75 divisions in Russia, playing a difficult game in the prevailing conditions after the October Revolution. The German command launched a major offensive on the river. Somme, which ended in failure. The Allied counter-offensive forced the German General Staff to request an armistice. It was signed on November 11, 1918 in Compiegne, and on January 18, 1919, a Conference of 27 allied countries opened at the Palace of Versailles, which determined the nature of the peace treaty with Germany. The treaty was signed on June 28, 1919; Soviet Russia, which concluded a separate peace with Germany in March 1918, did not participate in the development of the Versailles system.
Results of the war. According to the Treaty of Versailles, the territory of Germany was reduced by 70 thousand square meters. km, it lost all its few colonies; the military articles obliged Germany not to introduce conscription, to dissolve all military organizations, not to have modern types of weapons, and to pay reparations. The map of Europe was completely redrawn. With the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian dualist monarchy, the statehood of Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia was formalized, and the independence and borders of Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania were confirmed. Belgium, Denmark, Poland, France and Czechoslovakia regained the lands seized by Germany, receiving part of the original German territories under their control. Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine were separated from Turkey and transferred as mandated territories to England and France. The new western border of Soviet Russia was also determined at the Paris Peace Conference (Curzon Line), while the statehood of parts of the former empire was consolidated: Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland and Estonia.
Consequences of the First World War. The First World War demonstrated the crisis state of civilization. Indeed, in all the warring countries, democracy was curtailed, the sphere of market relations was narrowed, giving way to strict state regulation of the sphere of production and distribution in its extreme statist form. These trends contradicted the economic foundations of Western civilization.
No less striking evidence of the deep crisis was the dramatic political changes in a number of countries. Thus, following the October Revolution in Russia, revolutions of a socialist nature took place in Finland, Germany, and Hungary; in other countries there was an unprecedented rise in the revolutionary movement, and in the colonies - in the anti-colonial movement. This seemed to confirm the prediction of the founders of communist theory about the inevitable death of capitalism, which was also evidenced by the emergence of the Communist 3rd International, the 21/2nd Socialist International, the coming to power in many countries of socialist parties and, finally, the solid conquest of power in Russia by the Bolshevik Party.
The First World War was a catalyst for industrial development. During the war years, 28 million rifles, about 1 million machine guns, 150 thousand guns, 9,200 tanks, thousands of aircraft were produced, a submarine fleet was created (more than 450 submarines were built in Germany alone over these years). The military orientation of industrial progress became obvious; the next step was the creation of equipment and technologies for the mass destruction of people. However, already during the First World War, monstrous experiments were carried out, for example, the first use of chemical weapons by the Germans in 1915 in Belgium near Ypres.
The consequences of the war were catastrophic for the national economies of most countries. They resulted in widespread, long-term economic crises, which were based on the gigantic economic imbalances that arose during the war years. Direct military expenditures of the warring countries alone amounted to $208 billion. Against the background of a widespread decline in civilian production and living standards of the population, monopolies associated with military production were strengthened and enriched. Thus, by the beginning of 1918, German monopolists had accumulated 10 billion gold marks as profits, American monopolists - 35 billion gold dollars, etc.
e. Having strengthened during the war years, monopolies increasingly began to determine the paths for further development
tia leading to disaster for Western civilization. This thesis is confirmed by the emergence and spread of fascism.